Page 30 of Guarded By the Reaper

That got their attention. All three sisters stopped their work abruptly. Their heads turned towards me.

“Unacceptable,” the First Sister hissed. “Mind your own business, Grim. Do not meddle in the affairs of foolish humans and their deals.”

I took a step forward, defiance simmering just beneath my anger. “I can’t walk away from this,” I insisted. “Then I need to see the Breathless. Right now.”

They shared a glance with one another. It was a silent conversation, something ancient and telepathic that I would never be privy to. When they finally turned back to me, the Second Sister spoke.

“We’ll speak to the Breathless. But for now, you should leave. Your presence here is unwelcome.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but the look in their eyes told me it would be pointless.

As I turned to go, the Third Sister’s voice stopped me. “Grim,” she said, her tone oddly gentle. “Be careful. The path you’re walking leads to places even we can’t see.”

Chapter Sixteen

Millie

I didn’t know what to do with myself. Grim had been gone all day, it was late now, the sun had set an hour ago, and I was haunting the halls of Asterhaven like a ghost who got lost on her way to the afterlife. Elysia was in her room. She hadn’t set foot out of it all day, still mad at me after I’d dragged her inside and scolded her for having gone out into the garden without my permission. I left her dinner on a tray, at the door, and a few minutes later it was gone, which was a good sign. She was a good kid. She would never punish me by starving herself, especially not after months when she couldn’t eat because of her illness.

She wanted an explanation, but I couldn’t give it to her. I couldn’t tell her the truth, so I supposed I was going to have to live with the pain caused by the fact that I’d upset her. With the hurt that I was lying to her, and when she grew up and realized, she was going to hate me for the rest of her life.

But at least she would have the rest of her life to hate me.

I moved around the ground floor, walking into each room and checking the windows, drawing the curtains closed to make sure the Poppets couldn’t peer inside. I kept my gaze lowered as I did that, not wanting to fall for their tricks again. I wanted to believe that if one of them took my mother’s shape again and whispered to me in her voice, I wouldn’t follow it outside like I’d done the last time, but it was better to be safe than sorry. These creatures had a way of getting under my skin. Just a few more days until I could bring Lady Mews home, then, if I was lucky and Ma-Vasha didn’t lose her patience and came to collect what was due to her – namely, my soul – one more week to enjoy my sister’s company, to kiss her and hug her tight, before I abandoned her like my parents abandoned us.

To think about all of it... What had happened these past few days and what was to come... It was too much. I felt my chest constricting and my breath coming out in pained gasps. I paced around the living room, then moved to the kitchen, where I paced some more, feeling like I was going mad. My fight or flight instinct was kicking in, and I was starting to feel claustrophobic. I rushed out of the kitchen and down the hall, and from the corner of my eye, I saw the door to the sunroom.

The two times I’d summoned the soul-eating creature, I’d done it in the sunroom, at night. Since the moment Ma-Vasha materialized in there for the first time, the room had felt tainted with her dark, malevolent power, so I’d locked the door and told Elysia the room needed to be cleaned, and it was better to not play in there because of all the dust. Elysia didn’t question me, especially since she wasn’t necessarily a fan of the sunroom. It was mostly my place, where I went to read and paint. I loved the natural light; Elysia, not so much. She spent a lot of her time either on her phone or her tablet, and she claimed all the sun made it impossible to see the screen.

Grim wasn’t back yet. It was shocking to realize how much I needed him. He’d only been gone for a few hours, and I could even say that... I missed him. I’d gotten used to his presence in the house, to him following me around like a shadow. A protective shadow. I knew it was his job and I’d paid him to do it, but I couldn’t help but think it had become more than that. Earlier, before he left, I’d done something that was so unlike me – I’d sat on his lap and kissed him. It had been a chaste kiss, on the cheek, but who was I kidding? I’d had to stop myself from kissing him right on the mouth. It would’ve been inappropriate, seeing how he was my bodyguard and nothing more, but at the same time... I didn’t think it would’ve been completely wrong. He liked me, I could tell.

The way Grim looked at me... No man had looked at me like that before. Not even...

No. I wasn’t going to go there. I would not think about him. Not tonight, when I had so many other things to worry about.

Like Grim. Where was Grim? Why wasn’t he back?

Did I hope he would return with good news? That he’d found a way for me to get out of the terrible deal I’d made? Sure, but also... no. That wasn’t it. I wanted him to come back already because I needed him here. His presence soothed me, and when we touched, when I sat beside him on the couch and pressed my body to his, my entire being became alive with things I hadn’t felt in ages. In eight years, to be exact, and come to think about it, eight years of being with no man was a lot. But how could I be with a man when I didn’t trust any of them? Grim was different. I could trust him with my life, and not just because I’d paid a small fortune to Monster Security Agency to secure him as my bodyguard.

He was like no man I’d ever met before. He cared. He truly cared about me and Elysia, and he didn’t even spare a second glance at the mansion or thought about the fortune attached to the Aster name. When he looked at me, he didn’t see heaps of money. He saw me. And that made me feel so safe, so wanted and appreciated that I couldn’t help falling for him. Hard. I didn’t care that underneath his magical cloak he was a skeleton covered in patches of melted skin and darkness. The two times I’d slept pressed against his side, he’d felt real, solid, carnal. I didn’t care what his body looked like. I didn’t care he had a skull for a head, and no eyes in his eye sockets. He stirred things within me that had been dormant for eight years.

With nothing else to do, I found myself standing in front of the door to the sunroom. Before I knew it, I was digging in my pocket for the key and unlocking the door, stepping inside. The room smelled musty. There was a twinge of decay in the air, andI realized it was coming from the flowerpots. I hadn’t watered the plants in here for days, and they were dying. I wrapped my arms around myself and advanced to the center of the room. The tall windows let in the soft glow of the moonlight and stars. There were no drapes, as the whole point of a sunroom was to let in the sun.

Something shifted outside, in the dark, and I instantly shifted my gaze to the floor. I knew the Poppets were out there, watching me, hoping they could get to me now that I was standing in plain view. But I knew to ignore them. They could slither their way into my mind when I was asleep, but they couldn’t enter the house. In fact, they’d lost access to my mind, too, seeing how I wasn’t going to fall asleep unless I was protected by Grim’s cloak. We’d made it into an unspoken rule.

“Millie?” Grim’s voice pulled me out of my trance.

I turned to see him standing in the doorway. He must’ve teleported a few seconds ago, so silently that I hadn’t heard him.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

That was when I looked around me and saw the sheer number of Poppets gathered outside, at the windows. They were everywhere, maybe a dozen of them or more, their straw hands pressed to the glass, their dark eyes staring at me. When I made eye contact with one of them, they started whispering all at once.

I closed my eyes and pressed my hands to my ears. Grim was at my side in an instant.

“Millie, you can’t be in here. You keep this room locked for a reason.”

“Can you hear them too?”

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